this is all i've got...

TOO many of the same picture. Sorry-my friend Lesley took them and emailed them and I just loaded the images-should have not done them all and now I'm no techie and can't get them to delete. So-there you go. Sorry!



We had a slumber party with our friends the other night because the Dads were out of town and let's face it, we're homeless right now. Ava and her love affair with Molly and Grant...she said good morning molly, and huggy molly, and come here molly about a million times. Poor Molly...she is her only friend! :)

It's Freezing and Eye Makeup Remover

1)It's Freezing! A year ago, that would have been a complaint. Today, it's a celebration! It feels downright toasty outside. I don't think I even need a coat! Funny how your perspective changes. Although I do think, freezing in Houston feels WAY colder than here. Undoubtedly mental, but true.

2)Eye makeup remover does not, in fact, remove the dark circles from under your eyes. Just an FYI after some intense scrubbing this morning. Sleep, Kaiya, sleep!

My posts are sporadic at best lately because I have to get babysitter so I can come put a post up. This is because my house looks like this:

(my husband is totally my hero. he is a demolition machine.)

Uncle Greg is my other hero. He gets the "Friend of the Year" Award for spending 2 1/2 days helping Mark with work. Who does that? WE LOVE YOU GREG!
The next couple pictures give a good view of Kaiya's eye progress. I would say it has a full range of motion now, just not tracking with the other yet.



Any advice on how to stop your kids from whining gladly accepted.
Ava in her first princess costume.
Uncle Greg loving on the girls when he was released from duty. :)

Failed Photography

My stupid camera has this big orange red eye light (which doesn't work at all by the way)...so I hate shining it in Kaiya's eyes until she smiles. The only logical solution, I felt, was to hold it down and ready to the side, until she smiled then quickly move it to to take the picture.
Obviously, this was wildly successful. Awesome pictures, Heidi :)

Ava and Lindy Mommy were twins. (Please no comments on how she is twice my age and half my size.) (Okay, she is not twice my age. I would get yelled at for that.) She is sure a cute sister though!

Boy toys.

Pretty Kaiya...

k(eye)a , etc.

See Kaiya's eye ?? God has been SO good to us. I don't know why we got to have a miracle when so many don't, but I am so grateful. The eye isn't tracking with the other yet, but it IS all the way open and I believe the rest will follow. It is a month ago tomorrow that she got sick. We have come a long way!I truly believe your prayers are what got us where we are. THANK YOU!

We are staying at my sisters right now during some construction at our house. Ava is in LOVE with her four cousins and my sister. (Lindy Mommy) A few pics from our time.

Wonder where she learned about cell phones??
Screaming: "BYE MAMA, LOVE YOU"
Playing on the stairs with Cole... (seriously, I have found toys to be useless)
And with Aidan...
Big eye!
Ava: Hold Kaiya, Mama

Mama: Ok, Ava.
And this is how it ended. (amazing how much her eye has changed just since these were taken on the 4th)
And the video: I have never uploaded a video of Ava on this blog ever. So, because my friend Ali constantly asks for it, I posted a little snippet of classic Ava. She is quite obsessed with being dirty as you will see. That's from Mark's Mom, not me! :)
(P.S.-she has green pj's that say COZY across them...she started referring to all pajamas from there on as "cozy". We support anything that makes bedtime sound more appealing!)

My apologies...

It turns out more people have rabbit ears than I thought. I stand corrected, and apologize for any hurt I may have caused. :)

In other news: We have a new family member. Ava is obsessed with all fish, goldfish, Dorothy, and loved the fish tank when we were at the hospital. So-her loving Dad brought one home this weekend. (I refuse to clean a fish tank.) His name is "Fishy".
Kaiya went for a hospital follow-up on Friday. They were so excited at how well she is doing! Thanks for all your prayers! Her eye seems to really be improving in the last 48 hours. We took a few pictures of her with the most amazing pediatrician ever to walk the earth. She has been such a blessing to us!
Kaiya and sweet Dr. Rauwerda.
Daddy and Kaiya having a chat.
See her eye!?!? Looks so much better!
Ava has her first crush. This is our neighbor Grant-and while Molly is her force fed best friend, she wouldn't quit dancing with Grant!
We kicked the boys out later in the evening (motorcross?! gross!) and had a girls night. We bathed the girls, and got them suited up in their matching jammies. So cute!

Happy New Year, ABBA Style.

Have you heard that song by Abba? Not that great, but annoyingly lingers in your head.

So I can't find the camera. If you know me, this is not surprising. I usually can't find something of importance. Keys, wallet, phone, camera, you name it. I would make it a resolution to try and do better, but I don't keep resolutions. People who lose things (I call us losers)-typically can't keep resolutions if we can't even keep track of our keys. I haven't lost a pound since I had mono 5 years ago, I tried to quit drinking Diet Coke about 450 times with no luck, and I've read the first 2 months of my bible in a year for about ten years. They just aren't worth it. So-that leads to a boring post.

Some things I'm excited about though:

1) TV. The Bachelor (yeah, make fun of me, don't care), American Idol, and The Biggest Loser all start fresh in January. If you are going to be chained to your house for the winter, at least make your DVR work to keep you happy.

2)I think I'm well on my way to finding babysitters so I can still go to bible study and MOPS in the Spring and therefore not have to be committed to an institution.

And now, something I don't understand.

WHAT is the big deal with this whole digital TV transition? Is anyone really still using rabbit ears? This thing has been flashing across the screen like the rapture is about to happen and everyone who still has rabbit ears will be sucked away. I just don't get it. I think they are making something that will affect maybe 6 people WAY too big of news. Just my opinion.

Happy New Year to each of you. And much love from our family, and ABBA, to you.